Let's talk about the top 3 must-read books in a lifetime! 📚
Amit Arora
39 replies
I’m trying to create a solid reading list and would love to hear your recommendations.
What are the top 3 books you think everyone should read at least once in their lives?
These could be your personal favourites, the ones that have made the biggest impact on you, or just books you believe are the best ever written. I’m open to any genre or style—anything that you think is truly worth reading.
Let’s share our top picks!
Replies
Richard Reis@richardreeze
Most Recommended Books
1. Man's Search for Meaning
2. Sapiens
3. 4-Hour Workweek
I got this by looking at the books recommended by 600+ of the world's most successful people, and seeing which ones came up over and over.
Full list here: https://www.mostrecommendedbooks...
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Physics & Transcendence” – it’s such a magical book in which some of the greatest physicists of the 20th century (Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Niels Bohr, Max Planck) share their personal views on the intersection of science and spirituality.
I read it many times as a child (at which point I only understood about 20% of it)… I honestly have no clue why it’s not one of the most famous books today.
Who has read it too?
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@amit_arora my dad ;)
I just tried finding it, however couldn't see any English translations (the original version is German): https://www.amazon.de/Physik-Tra...
- this is the book
Speaking of non-fiction:
Eckhart Tolle – The Power of Now
Elizabeth Gilbert – Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Viktor Frankl – Yes To Life In Spite of Everything
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@staceyavril this sounds like a Lovely collection. :)
I have not read any of these. thanks for sharing 😊 will read them. which one do you suggest should I pick first?
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I'm gonna save this thread for future. I personally like " A fraction of the the whole" a great work of drama and comedy like what life really is.
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@salar__davari that is lovely drama and comedy. So what do you think what life really is ? 😀
Elon Jump
Bible
Atlas Shrugged
Quick & Delicious
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Elon Jump
@amit_arora resilience, perseverance and boldness protagonists have
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Sapiens
American Psycho
The Da Vinci Code
These are very interesting books for me. I read it when I was in university. I was so fascinated by these books that I began to miss my studies and had to often turn to the domypaper.com/ service for help. Thanks to these books, I fell in love with reading and now I have my own small library at home
Depends of what kind of books you like.
My personal favorites are:
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Crime and Punishment by Fjodor M. Dostojevski
On top of that I really enjoyed reading The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. This is a must read for anyone interested in starting their own business.
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@luka_brzin thats lovely read, Luka. Interesting to see The Almanack. would love to listen your learnings from The Almanack?
Ali, Ben Horowitz is a lovely author and explains really well on how to start and think 😊
@luka_brzin I've also read The Hard Thing About Hard Things. It's mostly about how to manage people in an established company or in a very well funded startup. Hopefully there are many of those hanging around on PH!
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I have many books which are my personal favorites and I can't not classify them as "must read for everyone" but one comes to mind specifically - Letters on Ethics: to Lucilius (Seneca) and the full version not the short paraphrased ones. But this is a very long read! :D
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@grigory_sl Grigory, this is a super mention. would really love to hear why you picked "Letters on Ethics"?
Great choices! I'd add The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) to the list - it's a short but profound read about following your dreams. And you can't go wrong with 1984 (George Orwell) for a timeless dystopian classic that really makes you think.
"The Wishing Game" by Meg Shaffer
"The Covenant of Water" by Abraham Verghese
"Spare" by Prince Harry
For understanding physics and the universe, any Hubert Reeves book. There are English translations but the original versions are in French.
For world politics: World Order by Henry Kissinger. I haven't read it, and I suspect it's as much about what to do as it is about what not to do, but I think it's a must-read nevertheless.
Sometimes it's not a particular book but a class of books:
* To learn a new language, read many books in that language.
* To learn new vocabulary, read books written by erudite people. You guessed it: reading the latest bestselling novel might not always be the best thing to do!
And read e-books, because it's much easier to look up words, not to mention the environmental benefits.
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@doga_armangil Doga, interesting to see you mentioned Hubert Reeves.
also, nice points mentioned.
by any chance, any recommendations for Quantum Physics?
@amit_arora Hello Amit, Quantum computers might lie just around the corner but I haven't read much about them (yet). If you want to play around with Hadamard products and so on there are apps for that, here's one for iOS: Quantum Puzzle Generator. I myself have tried Hello Quantum, which is no longer on App Store.
I realise you've asked for 3 books, so here's my 3rd book recommendation: "Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle". Yet another book that is as much about what to do as it is about what not to do.
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@doga_armangil 3rd book you shared is also lovely, Doga. 😊
For me:
1. 1984
2. One Hundred Years of Solitude
3. The Catcher in the Rye
@amit_arora I really respect Winston Smith, who unwittingly ends up challenging those who abuse their power to brainwash the populace. "Big brother is watching everyone:)"
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Sunrise: Guided Journaling & Mindfulness
1. Man's Search for Meaning
2. Atomic Habits
3. Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
Honorable mentions:
Black Swan, Sapiens, How To Win Friends, Smart Brevity, Scientific Advertising
Trangram
I would suggest:
1. Sapiens – by Yuval Noah Harari
2. The Selfish Gene – by Richard Dawkins
3. Guns, Germs, and Steel – by Jared Diamond
All are mind-blowing!
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@derek_liu_dev these are actually mind blowing 😲. lovely. Which one from these 3, will you suggest me to start with?
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@amit_arora Definitely Sapiens! It's interesting and eye-opening, and the author is good at story telling while make you rethink what you already learned about the world history and humanity!
for me they are:
1984
The Shadow of the Wind
The Little Prince
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@angela_ni2 The shadow of the wind is a rare book. :) Interesting to see it here, Angela. what was your experience after reading this?
1) Atlas Shrugged | Ayn Rand
One of my favorite quotes: “If you don't know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn.”
2) Animal Farm | George Orwell
This is a classic ironic quote that says everything about the farm order the pigs were trying to build: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
i would go with classics....
1. Bulgakov - Master and Margarita
2. "1984" by George Orwell (tho the storyline was taken from russian write - Zamyatin "we")
3. literally any book from Fitzgerald
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@katerina_mirrart this is lovely collection, Katerina. Wow, which one did you like the most from Fitzgerald?
@amit_arora
Tender Is the Night ))
Absolutely, I'd love to hear your picks! Must-read books can shape our perspectives and enrich our lives. Great book publishing services play a crucial role in getting these impactful stories into readers' hands, ensuring quality editing, design, and distribution so that the right messages reach the right audience. What are your top three?